Fully evolved

Battle properties

Generation I

Generations II to V

Offensive

Defensive

Power

Types

Power

Types

2×

½×

½×

2×

0×

0×

None

Generation VI onwards

Offensive

Defensive

Power

Types

Power

Types

2×

½×

½×

2×

0×

0×

None

Characteristics

Defense

Defensively, the Fighting type has its pros and cons. Fighting-type Pokémon have key resistances to Dark and Rock, but their weaknesses are to the common Flying and Psychic types, as well as the Fairy type in Generation VI. It is also highly likely for a Fighting-type to fall to strong super-effective attacks in one turn due to their typically mediocre Defense and Special Defense stats.

Fighting types that have secondary Psychic, Steel or Dark typing also have the advantage of having their Psychic weakness nullified, but as of Generation VI the latter has a disadvantage of having a double weakness to Fairy-type moves. Fighting types that have secondary Fire, Steel, or Poison typing also have the advantage of having their Fairy weakness nullified, but the latter similarly has a double weakness to Psychic-type moves.

Offense

Offensively, the Fighting type is one of the most powerful and commonly used types. It hits five different types for super-effective damage, more than any other type except for the Ground-type, with which it ties. It is super effective against the Rock and Steel types, which generally have high Defense, and is the only type that deals super effective damage against Normal. It is super effective against Ice types, a type frequently utilized for offense but with notoriously bad defense. It is also one of only three types that are super effective against Dark. On the other hand, Fighting is also resisted by several key types, including Poison and Fairy.

In contrast to Psychic types, most Fighting types are physical attackers due to their typically high Attack. Contrary to Psychic-type moves, Fighting-type moves that were introduced before Generation IV are physical moves (with the exception of a Fighting-type Hidden Power). However, there were very few powerful Fighting-type moves that Fighting types could learn prior to Generation IV.

Most Fighting-type Pokémon can learn Rock-type moves to counter Bug-type and Flying-type resistances to Fighting-type moves, although Flying types have markedly higher average Speed and no Fighting types can learn any priority Rock-type moves, which can result in defensive issues. Ghost types are immune to Fighting-type attacks without the aid of Foresight, Odor Sleuth or the Ability Scrappy. Owing to this, the Fighting type does well offensively in tangent with Ghost type attacks, and such a combination will provide at least neutral damage to all type combinations bar Normal/Ghost, which no Pokémon can currently possess unless under the effects of Trick-or-Treat. Offensively some Dark-type moves also provide good coverage, but Fairy-type Pokémon resist both Dark and Fighting. Despite this, many Fighting types can also learn Poison type moves (particularly Poison Jab) to help counter Fairy-type Pokémon.

Contest properties

Pokémon

As of Generation VII, there are 57 Fighting-type Pokémon or 7.1% of all Pokémon (counting those that are Fighting-type in at least one of their forms, including Mega Evolutions), making it the 8th rarest type.

Fighting is the most common secondary type for evolutions of starter Pokémon, with four starter lines being paired with it, three of them being Fire-type.

The Fighting type could be considered a physical counterpart to the Psychic type:

The highest average stat among all Fighting types is Attack, while for Psychic types it is Special Attack.

While the Fighting type is the only formerly physical type to not have any old moves changed into special moves, the Psychic type is the only formerly special type to not have any old moves changed into physical moves.